It’s 1998 and the entire city of New York has been turned into a giant maximum security prison complete with mined bridges, unscalable walls and a paramilitary police force. Into this collection of the worst of the worst lands the President of the United States (Donald Pleasence) who is forced to flee in an escape pod following the terrorist hijacking of Air Force One en route to a Nuclear Summit Meeting in Hartford. While the President tries to keep himself alive amongst the population of hardened criminals with nothing to lose, former Special Forces hero turned bank robber Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is offered a deal. If he can get into the city, find and rescue the President, locate and recover a cassette tape filled with vital nuclear information and return within 24 hours, he can have his freedom. Just to be sure, however, Snake is injected with a microscopic explosive that is set to go off in that time. If he makes it, his life will be saved, his sentence commuted and he will go free. If not, he will die.